Friday, May 27, 2005

Fortitude

You have to admire the resolve of men like this and wonder how our lack of national will may cause us to lose the war we face right now. I have the greatest respect for our soldiers, it's the jackals at home that I fear.

TWO men claimed to be Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender at the end of the Second World War could finally return home, 60 years later, after they were found living in the hills of a Philippine island.

The soldiers, identified as Yoshio Yamakawa, 87, from Osaka, and Tsuzuki Nakauchi, 83, from Kochi, apparently want to lay down their weapons - or what remains of them.

The two former members of the Imperial Japanese Army are believed to have spent the last six decades living in remote hills in the south of the Philippine island of Mindanao.

They were due to meet Japanese diplomats yesterday who had hoped to verify their identities. But the meeting in the port town of General Santos was delayed by an intermediary until today after the island was besieged by local media after the story of the men's discovery appeared in the Japanese press.